Tanner Health System's Enterprise System Selection Committee recommended Epic after receiving feedback from over 740 completed evaluations, reviewing demonstrations from vendors, conducting site visits to peer institutions and conducting formal reference calls.
In their demonstrations and based on feedback received from current Epic clients, we found that Epic has a full product suite that will allow us to reach our stated goals of one patient record.
Epic presented the best overall functionality and has a successful track record working with academic medical centers, community hospitals and clinics.
How will Epic Focus improve patient care?
Improved care and patient satisfaction is at the heart of our vision of a unified Tanner Health System where there is one patient record. Epic Focus will enable clinicians to coordinate and integrate patients' care, and will simplify the patient experience.
An enterprise-wide, integrated financial and clinical information system will:
- Promote safer and better coordinated interactive patient care.
- Provide a longitudinal care record across the continuum of care from primary, specialty and hospital care to rehabilitation and home care.
- Support our vision of delivering more integrated patient and family-centered care and tracking metrics on patient experience and outcomes.
- Continue to promote excellence, innovation and national leadership in our critical missions of patient care, investigation and education.
- Reduce duplicative tests across the system, helping control healthcare costs.
How many FTEs will be devoted to this project, and for how long?
Epic Focus is being implemented by a dedicated team of over 100 team members, vendor and consulting staff. Also, we will tap subject matter experts (e.g., clinicians, physicians, nurses and business office experts) from across all disciplines and functions throughout Tanner Health System during the course of the implementation.
Do community physicians need to migrate to the Epic platform?
Tanner will provide an option for physicians to participate through Epic's Community Connect platform.
Provider FAQs
Will I be able to use voice recognition at the hospital/in my practice/from my home?
Yes - we are currently evaluating the top voice recognition vendors and how they integrate with Epic. As part of this evaluation, Tanner leadership will determine the scope of voice recognition that best serves our medical staff.
When are we “going live” with Epic?
The project will kick off in September of 2018 and go-live is currently scheduled for October 2019 – as we solidify the planning, specific dates will be published.
When we go live, what kind of access will I have?
Do I have to be trained to use Epic?
Yes. The Tanner leadership team is working with Epic and our implementation partner to determine our training strategy and requirements.
When will I be trained on Epic?
The Tanner leadership team is still working to determine the final timeline, but training will likely take place 2-6 weeks prior to our Epic go-live.
Will I be able to replace my legacy system?
The Tanner team will be conducting scoping exercises whereby current applications are analyzed and compared to the Epic functionality. If you have an application that you believe is in need of review/scoping, please notify the Epic team or IT.
Some of my patients are also seen at other hospitals in the area (e.g., Piedmont, NE Georgia, Wellstar). Will I be able to see my patient’s data from those organizations?
Epic has an application, Care Everywhere, that allows organizations that use Epic to share pertinent clinical data (results histories, encounter summaries).